


Pretty Boys for Decoration

by golden_gardenias



Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Genre: Angst, Could Be Canon, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-07
Updated: 2014-08-07
Packaged: 2018-02-12 05:45:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2097846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/golden_gardenias/pseuds/golden_gardenias
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if, when Brian and Justin are at the hustler bar looking for Kenneth Rikert during 3x12, some of Sap's sleazy friends from the 2x14 party showed up?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pretty Boys for Decoration

**Author's Note:**

> i have a lot of feelings about "The Dangers of Sex and Drugs" and it always bothered me that brian never found out what happened, so i wrote this back in April.

At Carl’s insistence, Brian had gone back to the hustler bar, this time with Justin in tow, intent on getting the DNA sample that he needed to officially make The Cop a suspect.

Justin looked hot; tight jeans, black tank top, leather jacket.  Brian could hardly wait until it was over so he could take him back to the loft and fuck him into the mattress.

As per the plan that they’d come up with, Justin would sit at the bar and try to pick him up, while Brian observed from a safe distance away, a couple chairs down the bar.  He’d been a bit reluctant to ask Justin for help and let him in on his plan, but he knew he couldn’t ask Hunter; he didn’t know nearly enough about the kid to trust him with this, and besides, Mikey would never forgive him for putting the kid in that kind of position.

Still, the idea of Justin being here was kind of unsettling to him.  He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to watch the same hands that choked the life out of Jason Kemp touch Justin without reacting in a way that could blow their cover.  And there was no guarantee that The Cop wouldn’t want to go off somewhere alone before Justin got the chance to get the sample from him.  Brian knew he didn’t have to lecture him beforehand about doing this; Justin was clever enough to find a way out of that if he needed to.  He’s nineteen and world-weary now, not seventeen and naive.

He didn’t even want to _think_ about the mess he would be in if seventeen-year-old Justin were here right now.

They’d been there for about ten minutes, waiting for him to show up.  Justin had gotten his fair share of propositions--young, blond, and cute was an ideal for a lot of people--but he’d turned them all down, occasionally sending a smirk down to Brian in jest.

But then three guys came up to him, a little younger than the other patrons, but still seedy-looking.

“Well well well, look who it is!”  One of them boomed.  Brian straightened, curious; did Justin know these guys?

“I’m sorry, but do I know you?”  Justin asked, confused.

“You don’t remember us, Angel-face?  I’m hurt,” he replied.

Brian found himself irritated at the patronizing sarcasm of the guy’s tone.

“Well he was pretty doped up that night, so you can hardly blame him,” another one chimed in jokingly.

Doped up?  What the fuck are these guys talking about?

“If we’d known you were gonna turn to hustling after Gary fired you, we wouldn’t have tried so hard,” the third added.

Brian stiffened on his stool.   _Sap fired him?  He told me he quit.._.

Justin stood from his stool abruptly, almost knocking it over.

“Hey now, you aren’t gonna refuse us again, are ya?”

“Yeah, I think we deserve half price, all the trouble you put us through last time.”

The three of them had formed a small circle around Justin during their exchange, and one of them reached out to grab his arm.  He jerked it away forcefully.  “Don’t touch me,” he gritted out.

“Oh come on, don’t be like that, sugar.”

“I don’t think I can take another rejection from you,” one sniggered.

Brian could see the panic starting to brew behind his eyes at their words, could see him trying to keep it together, but coming apart at the seams.

“I don’t want to,” Justin said defiantly.

Brian hadn’t realized that he’d been gradually edging himself closer to the group, but now he was right behind them.

“We don’t have a sling this time, but I’m sure we could still have some fun,” he heard one of them whisper.  The speaker put his hands on Justin’s waist and pulled him back to grind into his hips.

Justin whirled around, eyes blazing.  “I said that I don’t want to!” he yelled, pushing him away.

Amid the cries of “Hey!” and “You little shit!” Brian stepped between them, standing in front of Justin.  “He said no,” he told them coldly.

They scoffed.  “Who’s this, your pimp?” one of them asked.

Brian glared at him.  “It doesn’t matter who I am; he said no.  That means you don’t fucking touch him.”

He felt Justin grab his wrist from behind him and walked forward, pulling him along and ignoring the disgruntled jeers coming from the three men.

Once they were in the corvette, Brian locked the doors and turned to look at Justin.  He was avoiding his eyes, focusing instead on the slight tremor of his hands in his lap.

“Who the fuck were those guys, Justin?” he asked, voice hard.

Justin hesitated for a moment, then sighed.  “They’re Sap’s friends,” he answered quietly.  “They were at the party.”

Brian nodded.  “I kind of figured that out for myself, Sunshine.  What the fuck were they talking about?  They said that Sap fired you.”

“That’s because he did.”

“Then why did you tell me you quit?”

Justin swallowed.  “Because I didn’t want to have to tell you why.”

Brian stayed quiet for a few seconds.  “What were they talking about?  With the sling and you being doped up?”

Justin leaned his head back against the seat, looking drained.  “I don’t want to talk about this right now, Brian.”

A pit was settling into his stomach now.  “Well you’ve had a whole year to talk about it, but it never came up, so we’re talking about it now.”

Justin narrowed his eyes at him.  “You never want to talk about anything.”

“And you always do.  And this sounds pretty damn important, so why don’t you just fucking tell me what the fuck they were talking about?”

Justin clenched his jaw angrily.  “I was stupid and did a line of coke and drank something that Sap had spiked so he and his friends could take me to this back room in his place were they put other drugged dancers in slings and took turns fucking them while they were unconscious.”

He’d said it quickly and without stopping, wanting to get it over with.  The words hung in the air between them.  Brian’s expression closed off as he processed it.  He gripped the steering wheel tightly, taking a deep breath.  “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?” he asked, voice tight.

“Didn’t think you’d care,” Justin replied flippantly.

“That’s fucking bullshit and you know it.  Not care that you were almost...” he trailed off, unable to finish.

Justin looked down at his hands again.

“What’s the real reason?”

There was silence between them for almost a minute before Justin answered.  “I was being stupid and I didn’t want you to say ‘I told you so.’  I didn’t want you to keep seeing me as the silly little faggot kid you always had to take care of.  The whole point of getting a job and doing it on my own was to show you that I was capable of handling things by myself.  To prove that I was a man.”  He paused.  “I didn’t want you to be disappointed in me,” he admitted, voice constricting.

Brian closed his eyes, sighing.  “Justin,” he said softly.  “Look at me, Sunshine.”

Justin kept his eyes cast downward.  Brian reached over and gently put his fingers on his chin, moving his head to face him.  There were tears glistening in his eyes that stabbed Brian in the gut.  “Listen to me.  Are you listening?”

He nodded.

Brian swallowed.  “It doesn’t matter if you were being stupid or if you should’ve known better.  No one has the right to touch you if you don’t want them to.  No one gets to touch you if you tell them you don’t want them to, and it’s their fault if they fuck that up, not yours.  Do you understand?” he asked quietly.

Another nod.

Brian cleared his throat.  “It doesn’t matter how old you get, Sunshine; you’ll still be the silly little faggot kid that I have to take care of.  And it doesn’t matter what the circumstances are; if someone tries to hurt you, I want you to fucking tell me.  Alright?”

Justin nodded again.  This time, a tear escaped, rolling down his cheek.

Brian swallowed, watching its progress to avoid meeting Justin’s eyes for the last thing he had to say.  “And I could never be disappointed in you, you fucking twat.”

This made Justin laugh, giving Brian a watery smile.  He leaned forward, pressing a small kiss to Brian’s lips.  “Thank you,” he said quietly.

Brian’s answering kiss was firmer, communicating the rest of the words that he couldn’t say.

The drive back to the loft was quiet and pensive for the both of them.  As calm as Brian appeared on the outside, there was a storm brewing on the inside.

Sap and his friends had drugged Justin.  They’d tried to have sex with him while he was unconscious.  Fuck, they’d actually tried to _rape_ him.

He’d known that Sap was a sleaze for years, but _this_?  Had he always been capable of this?  Did this happen to all the dancers he invited to his place as “decoration” for a party?

He stole a glance at Justin out of the corner of his eye.  He was looking out the window absently, not really seeing whatever was speeding past.

The few times Justin had refused him, mostly after the bashing, he’d never pushed.  He’d backed off, knowing that Justin wasn’t ready yet.  Knowing that he’d wait for however long it took to get him better.

He could see that Justin in his mind’s eye, scared and alone, trying to fight off his assailants.  He could picture those men from the bar laughing and leering, their hands leaving bruises on his smooth, pale skin.  He could hear Justin crying, screaming for help--

“Brian?”

Justin’s voice brought him from his dark thoughts.  “Brian, are you alright?”

“Yeah,” he answered curtly.  “I’m fine.”  His fingers curled tighter around the steering wheel.

“You passed your building.”

He finally noticed their surroundings.  “Right.”

Justin watched him curiously.  “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m just peachy, Sunshine.  Juuuust peachy.”

Justin clearly didn’t believe him, but he dropped it.

Once they’d turned around and parked, Brian went back to thinking.

He’d never really had a reason to fear for Justin’s safety--aside from the obvious, of course--but now...now the possibility was there, festering in the back of his mind. It hadn’t been on his radar, this particular danger, but now that he knew that it had almost happened, everything was different.

It could happen again.  Someone at Babylon could try something in the back room.  Someone could follow him from PIFA.  Someone could pull him into a dark alley as he walked somewhere.

Sap fucking owned Babylon.  His friends could come by to see him one day, notice Justin in the crowd--

Fuck.

“Justin.”

They were on opposite ends of the loft, carrying out their own individual routines.  Justin was sitting on the couch, sketching idly to pass the time.  He looked up at Brian.

“Don’t...I want you to...” fuck, why was this so hard to say?  “Fucking be careful, alright?”

Justin gave him a small smile, as if he understood what Brian had been going through this whole time.  “I know.”

Brian nodded.  Christ, he needed a drink.

They settled into bed about an hour later.  Justin propped himself up on his elbows, smiling down at Brian and running his fingers through his hair.  “I love that you’d do anything for me,” he said.

Brian snorted at the familiar phrase, but turned serious.  “I want you safe, Sunshine.”  Justin nodded and laid his head on Brian’s chest.  Brian let his fingers trail up and down Justin’s arm, lulling him to sleep with the slow and gentle rhythm.  Once his breathing evened out, Brian spoke again quietly, so softly he wasn’t sure the words had left his mind.

“I’ll keep you safe.”


End file.
